Is Your Glass of Wine Canceling Out Your Workout?

Well, that glass of red wine you look forward to some nights of the week may be doing more harm than good. While resveratrol is often touted as the miracle antioxidant found in red wine, a new study questions whether high levels of the antioxidant may be erasing the benefits of your workout.

The study published in the Journal of Physiology questions whether the health benefits of antioxidants are erasing the cardiovascular benefits of a workout. But the subjects who have reason to worry about the newest research? Men over the age of 65. The study followed 27 participants in a two-month-long, "high-intensity" workout program; half of the participants took a resveratrol supplement while the other half took a placebo. Those taking the placebo were found to have lower body fats, lower blood pressure, and lower cholesterol levels, reports Medical Daily. Thus the conundrum — even though resveratrol has shown positive implications in heart health, the newest research shows negative implications in cardiovascular health. "We were surprised to find that resveratrol supplementation in aged men blunts the positive effects of exercise training on cardiovascular health parameters, in part because our results contradict findings in animal studies," said Dr. Ylva Hellsten, the leader of the project, in a statement.

Which leads us to a ray of hope in the newest study — mainly, that the amount of resveratrol given to the subjects, said Hellsten, was significanty higher than the amount you'd find in food (like blueberries and pistachios) or in a glass of wine. Medical Daily notes that the amount of resveratrol the participants took was 100 times higher than the amount you'd find in a glass of wine, about 1.5 milligrams. So you can rest easy, and drink up.